Amazon.com
Listening to the author William Pollack read Real Boys, it doesn't take long to find out that being a boy these days isn't all fun and games. As codirector of the Center for Men at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical Center, Pollack has seen behind the stoic masks of troubled, modern boys as they struggle to cope with the mixed messages, conflicting expectations, and increasingly complex demands they receive from our evolving society. "New research shows that boys are faring less well ... that many boys have remarkably fragile self-esteem, and that the rates of both depression and suicide in boys are frighteningly on the rise."
What are parents to do? They could start by listening to the author's thoughts on contemporary child-rearing techniques, analysis of the root causes of many male behavior problems, and recommendations for avoiding all-too-common pitfalls. In Real Boys, Pollack draws upon nearly two decades of research to support his theories and makes an impressive assault on the popular myths surrounding the conventional definition of masculinity.
While listening to Real Boys, it is important to remember that Pollack is a psychologist, not a professional narrator. His enunciation is less than perfect and his reading sometimes strikes a clinical tone, but his intelligent writing and the obvious concern he holds for this important subject help carry a passionate message and compensate for any vocal shortcomings. (Running time: three hours, two cassettes) --George Laney
Book Description
Featuring a new preface by the author on how parents can make a difference.With author appearances on Good Morning America, The Today Show, 20 /20 and NPR's Fresh Air, and featuring articles in Newsweek, Time, and The New York Times, Real Boys is one of the most talked-about and influential books published this year.Based on William Pollack's groundbreaking research at Harvard Medical School over two decades, Real Boys explores why many boys are sad, lonely, and confused although they may appear tough, cheerful, and confident. Pollack challenges conventional expectations about manhood and masculinity that encourage parents to treat boys as little men, raising them through a toughening process that drives their true emotions underground. Only when we understand what boys are really like, says Pollack, can we help them develop more self-confidence and the emotional savvy they need to deal with issues such as depression, love and sexuality, drugs and alcohol, divorce, and violence.
Customer Reviews:
Not Just About Boys.......2007-08-20
As the sister of six brothers and the mother of two boys, I found myself agreeing with the author on many fronts.
What the author calls "The Boy Code" is what Steven Covey would probably call using efficiency rather than effectiveness as a goal in raising males. The problem is that efficiency leaves the boy with a limited arsenal when it comes to understanding and taking responsibility for his own emotional life. It certainly leaves the boy with limited resources when it comes to understanding or helping others who are wrestling with problems in their own inner life. The lie of "The Boy Code" is that recognizing one's own "negative" emotions is a self-indulgence that simply makes a person weak, a weakness that is permissible in famales, but not in males. Nothing could be further from the truth.
We don't do our boys any favors by teaching them to ignore their own emotions. We also do them a disservice if we let the expectations learned from females dictate what kind of emotional life we expect of males. I know men who live by what this book is espousing. They aren't "wimps", as some reviewers have implied that boys raised in this way will be. They are adults who understand their own emotions well enough to not be unknowingly ruled by them. They know when they are angry, they can admit when they feel fear, and they know how to choose to act under those circumstances, rather than simply reacting, which is what people who refuse to acknowledge their own inner life tend to do. They are certainly not men who expect themselves to experience emotion in the same way as their wives or other women in their lives do, nor do they feel some authority to dictate emotional taboos to other men. They process their emotions in their own ways, they let others do the same, and they don't apologize for it.
I wouldn't, however, limit the observations in this book to boys. There are women and girls who, for whatever reason, have learned to live by what the author calls "The Boy Code." There are men who don't process their emotions as this book implies that men raised in earlier decades will. For that reason, I would caution that the reader not presume after reading this book that he or she now "understands men." The book gives tools for understanding others and helping them to understand themselves, and points out some ineffective but "efficient" ways that people often use in dealing with strong emotion. Knowing these common human patterns isn't a substitute for paying attention to the actions and emotional style of the person you're actually dealing with.
The reviewers who complain that the book takes a great many pages to repeat the same story over and over have a point. A reader who does not want or need so many examples to get the author's point won't lose much by simply skimming the book after the first 100-200 pages or so.
Author wants boys to be "nurtured" to be wimps and sissies !.......2007-08-12
In a nutshell,(which is where this book belongs), the "author" wants boys to be wimps and sissies. The fact that a major New York publisher would print such nonsense pretty well proves that Communism is not dead, but like a snake has simply changed it's skin; AKA Social Marxism. Had William S. Pollack been around in 1776, his advise to Patrick Henry would no doubt have been to "let it all out" and cry about it, and counselling for the depression.
The fact that you can buy this book for a mear penny pretty much says it all.
Few people who have actually owned and read the book feel any need to keep it on their bookshelves. Mine is now going in the trash. As an antdote to this nonsense, I recomend "THE WAR AGAINST BOYS" by Christina Sommers, also sold bt Amazon.
this book is boring.......2007-06-20
It took so much effort to get through this book, and I'm not even sure why I read the whole thing--I must have been really bored. If you want to read a book full of stories about wealthy teenage boys who can't decide which ivy league school to attend written by a man who clearly thinks academic achievement is the single most important thing in life, this is the book for you. And most of the stories sound fictional; maybe that's just because Pollack isn't a talented writer.
I gained nothing from this book and I want my money back.
Great balanced account with concrete and practical suggestions.......2006-12-08
William Pollack certainly has impressive credentials with respect to writing on this topic. This is apparent from the editorial reviews above. More importantly, he is a good writer who brings the inner life of boys and the challenges they face in our society to life. He provides both an inside view and a worthwhile outside perspective.
One of the repeating themes in the books is that we have contradictory expectations of men (boys) in our contemporary society. For example, on one level we expect men to be strong, tough, etc. At the same time, there is also a tacit expectation that contemporary men embrace the "New Age" ideal of being tender and vulnerable. Dr. Pollack points out that this causes many men to feel conflicted and often reduces them to painful silence and often isolation.
While Dr. Pollack covers the inside life of boys, he also does an admirable job of citing relevant statistics on how boys performance is slipping academically and other useful objective sociological data. He covers this issue from every angle and goes beyond diagnosing the problems to making concrete suggestions for parents, schools and society at large.
This book is a valuable addition to the literature on boys and the challenges they face. It is definitely a must own book for anyone who is raising a boy along with "Parenting from the Inside Out" by Daniel Siegel which is great for any parent.
find another book .......2006-08-05
Makes many accurate observations about boy behavior and its origins,however,the book leans a little too much toward "feminization" of boys in preventing behavioral problems.This may be the politically-correct way to help boys,but not the productive way or the ethical way.
Book Description
Winner of the Governor General's Award
A Library Journal Best Book of 2001
Part autobiography and part social history, Notes from the Hyena's Belly offers an unforgettable portrait of Ethiopia, and of Africa, during the 1970s and '80s, an era of civil war, widespread famine, and mass execution. "We children lived like the donkey," Mezlekia remembers, "careful not to wander off the beaten trail and end up in the hyena's belly." His memoir sheds light not only on the violence and disorder that beset his native country, but on the rich spiritual and cultural life of Ethiopia itself. Throughout, he portrays the careful divisions in dress, language, and culture between the Muslims and Christians of the Ethiopian landscape. Mezlekia also explores the struggle between western European interests and communist influences that caused the collapse of Ethiopia's social and political structure—and that forced him, at age 18, to join a guerrilla army. Through droughts, floods, imprisonment, and killing sprees at the hands of military juntas, Mezlekia survived, eventually emigrating to Canada. In Notes from the Hyena's Belly he bears witness to a time and place that few Westerners have understood.
Customer Reviews:
Notes on Notes.......2007-03-27
An enlightening story of a boy growing up in Ethiopia. A world that we Americans cannot relate to, however we certainly are sympathetic. Still, Mezlekia spares us by sprinkling a little humor here and there, and we see that young boys do find time to be a little mischievous even in the worst of situations, like straying too far and being eaten by hyenas. Visited Ethiopia with my wife in the late 80's and witnessed some of the famine and suffering, but also found the people gracious and hospitable to Westerners. Thoroughly enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it.
James Hart Isley
Author of The Bear Hunter
A Very Enjoyable Read.......2007-03-27
Why I enjoyed Notes from the Hyena's Belly? The writing, the wisdom, the history, the survival. If you enjoy having a narrarator walk you through a book showing you the real people, places and happenings that were "Once Upon A Time," then you may just find this book to be a treasure. I myself enjoyed the way this author held my inner voice's attention. It was almost as if I were sitting at his home while he spoke of the life experiences that make him the person now sitting before me. Because I'm such an avid reader, I did put this book down a few times to indulge in other reads. I did this knowing that when I'd pick it back up I'd have a great companion to spend time with. I almost hated to see the book conclude. The fact that I'm writing only my second or third amazon review says how much I enjoyed this read. Hope you decide to visit the Hyena's Belly. You won't be disappointed.
Ethiopia and the Dergue.......2007-02-17
My family spent 23 months in Ethiopia during my active duty military service, in a home just a block off the road from His Imperial Majesty's (Haile Selassie I) palace and the Bole airport in Addis Ababa. That was from February of 1970 until January of 1972. The American community was concerned about the stability of the government there when the Emperor would eventually go the way of all mankind. HIM HSI died after we left, probably suffocated by the new rulers after the Dergue took over the country . Many of us wondered what has happened during the intervening years. This book tells the story from the memories of one student who lived and suffered through those perilous times. It's very interesting to anyone who ever lived there, and appears authentic.
When even the hyenas stopped laughing.......2006-08-29
Nega Mezlekia was unlucky enough to be born in Ethiopia in 1958, so that he was a teenager when Emperor Haile Selassie was overthrown and murdered. A new regime, guaranteeing change for the poor, feudal rural masses, came to power. In the grim years that followed, Ethiopia ate its own children at a terrible rate. They died in civil wars, in political repression, and in an international war with Somalia. Later, at least in the cities, there was a period of terror in which 100 to 200 youths a day were being killed on the streets of Addis Ababa, with no trial, no accusations, nothing. Perhaps 100,000 people died in this time. Finally, a ghastly famine, seen on televisions around the world, claimed thousands more lives. From a generally innocent childhood, Mezlekia moved into a youth of horror after horror, barely escaping with his life time after time. Revolutionaries executed his father, Somali guerrillas killed his mother, his best friend died as a rebel; death crashed all around him for years. Somehow, Mezlekia survived to become a university lecturer in the provinces, then at last to go abroad to study, first in the Netherlands, then in Canada. He did not return. The story, related in this book, is a gripping one, well-told, with many touches of magical realism and tellings of Ethiopian folk tales to help readers understand the grim dreadfulness of those times.
Having recently read Pascal Khoo Thwe's "From the Land of Green Ghosts" about Burma, I was struck by the comparison. Both men came from small places in countries suffering from despotic rule, corruption, and poverty, but had generally enjoyable childhoods. Both wound up joining armed opposition, surviving many dangers, and at last escaping to the West and a university career. Khoo Thwe's book is lyrical and extremely frank, while Mezlekia has a wonderful sense of irony and dark humor. Though an engineer, he is pretty loose with distances, ages, etc. (well, who cares about numbers when you are writing magical realism ?) and many political questions about his past remain unexplained. But am I some kind of examiner ? I accepted NOTES FROM THE HYENA'S BELLY as a very accurate and devastating picture of what was going on in Ethiopia in the `60s and `70s. Both Khoo Thwe and Mezlekia have written rare accounts of what millions of people around the world experience, so far from the daily reality of those of us fortunate enough to live in peaceful, wealthy nations. That they survived at all is amazing, that they could write their stories in English is even more impressive, and they write so well. For anyone who wants to know what Ethiopians have lived through, or where they have come from, this book is a must. The customs, religion, and daily life of an Ethiopian are not often encountered in literature. Mezlekia does a great job illustrating them. Finally, for a glimpse of the irrepressible human spirit, you could do a lot worse than read Mezlekia's story.
Notes That Matter.......2004-06-23
This book is full of meaning, often insightful and completely unforgettable it is written with candor and wit despite its serious edges.
Nega Mezlekia has written a memoir about his boyhood growing up in Ethiopia during the fall of Emperor Selassie. He experiences all of the curious playful things that all boys are reared with yet he also discusses the harshness of the environment during the rise of Junta communism in which thousands of young people were ruthlessly slaughtered. He writes on page 183, "Apathy in the face of continual violence is something someone who has never lived through a war cannot understand......People simply gathered about themselves, like rags, what life there was left, deafened and inured to the inevitability of death." Although Mezlekia has many horrible atrocities to write about this is not all he adheres to. At times this memoir is very witty and I laughed out loud several times imagining some of his shenanigans. His adventures with medicine men and native cures is hilarious as well as his attempt to capture the loose cattle in his village with pepper.
I am always impressed with the attitude of Africans who survive the atrocities they have faced in their home countries. Their spirit and survivalist hearts seem to always prevail despite the horrible circumstances they are often forced to endure. Mezlekia managed to escape his country at possibly its worst moments, not without heartache, not without suffering, but with a true gift as a storyteller. I would recommend this memoir to everyone interested in a great true tale but especially to those concerned with the plights of our fellow human beings who suffer so gracefully for their native lands.
Average customer rating:
- Uncle Oliver
- I wish all children were introduced to science like this!
- Memory is Precious
- If you rated it poorly, you'll never understand.
- A Chemical Childhood
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Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood
Oliver Sacks
Manufacturer: Vintage
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ASIN: 0375704043
Release Date: 2002-09-17 |
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
Oliver Sacks's luminous memoir charts the growth of a mind. Born in 1933 into a family of formidably intelligent London Jews, he discovered the wonders of the physical sciences early from his parents and their flock of brilliant siblings, most notably "Uncle Tungsten" (real name, Dave), who "manufactured lightbulbs with filaments of fine tungsten wire." Metals were the substances that first attracted young Oliver, and his descriptions of their colors, textures, and properties are as sensuous and romantic as an art lover's rhapsodies over an Old Master. Seamlessly interwoven with his personal recollections is a masterful survey of scientific history, with emphasis on the great chemists like Robert Boyle, Antoine Lavoisier, and Humphry Davy (Sacks's personal hero). Yet this is not a dry intellectual autobiography; his parents in particular, both doctors, are vividly sketched. His sociable father loved house calls and "was drawn to medicine because its practice was central in human society," while his shy mother "had an intense feeling for structure ... for her [medicine] was part of natural history and biology." For young Oliver, unhappy at the brutal boarding school he was sent to during the war, and afraid that he would become mentally ill like his older brother, chemistry was a refuge in an uncertain world. He would outgrow his passion for metals and become a neurologist, but as readers of Awakenings and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat know, he would never leave behind his conviction that science is a profoundly human endeavor. --Wendy Smith
Book Description
Long before Oliver Sacks became a distinguished neurologist and bestselling writer, he was a small English boy fascinated by metals–also by chemical reactions (the louder and smellier the better), photography, squids and cuttlefish, H.G. Wells, and the periodic table. In this endlessly charming and eloquent memoir, the author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Awakenings chronicles his love affair with science and the magnificently odd and sometimes harrowing childhood in which that love affair unfolded.
In
Uncle Tungsten we meet Sacks’ extraordinary family, from his surgeon mother (who introduces the fourteen-year-old Oliver to the art of human dissection) and his father, a family doctor who imbues in his son an early enthusiasm for housecalls, to his “Uncle Tungsten,” whose factory produces tungsten-filament lightbulbs. We follow the young Oliver as he is exiled at the age of six to a grim, sadistic boarding school to escape the London Blitz, and later watch as he sets about passionately reliving the exploits of his chemical heroes–in his own home laboratory.
Uncle Tungsten is a crystalline view of a brilliant young mind springing to life, a story of growing up which is by turns elegiac, comic, and wistful, full of the electrifying joy of discovery.
Customer Reviews:
Uncle Oliver.......2007-07-19
The relationship between uncle and nephew is the most precious. Why? Because nephews confide in uncles like they don't confide in a father or mother. And uncles are sort of pseudo fathers to nephews. The responsibility of an uncle is not less than a father: to inspire and stimulate the child wherever he resists parental influence. I would imagine the rapport between an aunt and a niece is the same way, looking up to the corresponding role model and same sex mentor.
Although Dr. Sacks paints a portrait of his extended family in this book, his Uncle Dave "Tungsten" is highlighted as an important source of inspiration. His retelling of his childhood and adolescence is fascinating. This is a beautiful book, sometimes overwhelming when scientific lingo becomes predominant but very warm and engaging. Even with a poor knowledge in chemistry -- my case -- it's immensely enjoyable. Dr. Sacks' childhood memories are colorful, jam-packed, very serious at times but also humorous, a bit like John Boorman's movie "Hope and Glory".
I wish all children were introduced to science like this!.......2007-05-15
Sigh...as a science educator who sees students turned off of science in spite of it being much more interesting and useful then English and history, it's frustrating to read about a child whose family managed to convey the fun of science. I've enjoyed Oliver Sacks books so much. He is such a great person, a great neurologist, a great writer who manages to introduce the world to his scientific world and keep them interested. Too bad we cannot get someone like Sacks to write some of our textbooks because they are too dry, without showing the practical applications of the science. Sack's was lucky in having a family with immense background in the sciences, who spent their entire lives performing or doing science in some way. Very few of us have access to the equipment and the materials needed to do lab science at home, but Sacks did have access to this stuff and he certainly made the most of it.
Sack's stories include information about his big family and their great variety of work in the sciences. His descriptions of his family members, his memories are filled with both love and awe for their patience with him and his interests in sciences which sometimes were not the same as theirs (his mom and dad wanted him to be a physician, and not a chemist).
Sack's books are usually compendiums of short stories, which make for interesting reading. He has had so many intriguing forays into different fields of chemistry, and his ability to remember the textbooks and the books that famous scientists from that golden age in England and Germany are phenomenal in the recall. I remember the teacher in science who made such an impact on my perception of science, and I am only too aware of how short we are in obtaining good science teachers and introducing science programs into public schools. Maybe reading this book will encourage other young people with talent to look into science as a career possibility.
Karen L. SAdler
Memory is Precious.......2007-03-15
I loved reading this book for multiple reasons, but I will restrict myself to mentioning two. The first is that it is a well constructed story with excellent writing---a combination I cannot resist. The narrative moves at a pace to engage and captivate the reader without making the story just a rush to get to the next page. Writing that is thoughtful makes sure that the reader will savor and think about the events presented. This is worth a read merely to have the understanding of one more perspective presented well.
But there is more to the book that makes me give this an enthusiastic five stars. As a chemist I was delighted to read a book that gave insight into this space of history of the chemistry profession. The history is two-fold: first it is a history of childhood enthusiasm for science and second it is a history of chemistry in the middle of the 1900s. many a child is enthusiastic about something. For all those children who loved science but never had the means to explore this book will bring sadness at what they lost for not being given such freedom and support. But the book also brings joy at reading that someone, somewhere had the chance to be the brilliant child you always thought you were. Today we highly restrict certain chemicals and also have an emphasis on safety in working with all chemicals. Sacks presents a time period when chemistry and science in general was done with little concern for safety. Instead of glossing over things Sacks presents information and experiments without deluding the reading into thinking it was perfectly safe.
This book is an excellent exploration of multiple themes that are well worth thinking about. I challenge anyone to read it and not find something in it that doesn't provoke some thoughts about what you are doing now with what you are enthusiastic about or what you loved childhood and now have lost as an adult.
If you rated it poorly, you'll never understand........2006-07-15
I ran across this book quite by accident, on the bottom shelf of the Engineering section in the bowels of a major brick-and-mortar bookstore. Perusing the first few pages convinced me to give it a try. I was hooked, and devoured the book in two nights.
There are enough reviews here to give you a feel for the book. My only point for writing this is that those who have given the book poor reviews simply don't "get it", nor, likely, shall they. If you grew up with an avid interest in what makes the world work, wore out VHS tapes of Cosmos, and were reading Gribbin, Rucker, and Asimov (nonfiction) in second grade, you "get it" and will adore this book. Sacks's voracious appetite for knowledge at this young age mirrored my own, and his enjoyment of discovery for discovery's sake made me nostalgic of my own youth within the first few pages - an amazing testimonial of the timelessness of his relevance, given the nearly-50-year difference in our ages.
Note: I'm a professional manager of computer geeks, not a chemist.
A Chemical Childhood.......2006-05-28
Oliver Sacks is one of my favorite authors and I especially like his autobiographical-chemical tome "Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood." I read it a while back and never reviewed it, but on the second reading while flying from El Paso, Texas, to Washington, DC, recently I was so delighted with it that I thought that I would put in my 2 cents worth.
I was lucky enough to meet Oliver Sacks about the time I read this book the first time and had a chance to talk with him (with a group of students) for a few minutes after his lecture. He is certainly a very interesting man and well versed in a number of fields.
His book on his early life and his association with chemistry as a nearly all consuming hobby was in many ways somewhat echoed in my own childhood- except I became consumed by both astronomy and chemistry in my teens. Still, like Sacks, I performed a number of experiments with a friend of mine that would now curl the hair of any parent, and in the process learned a lot about chemistry (it was my favorite science after biological sciences in college). Also like Sacks I became a biological scientist, but in a different specialty. Unfortunately I had no relatives who remotely understood my interests and I do envy him for his uncles and even his parents, who were not always so supportive, but did give him a love of learning and science.
Sacks has written an account of his early life with its sorrows (being sent away to a boarding school run by a sadistic head master during the Blitz in London) and the ecstasies (chemistry, books, science history and even marine biology)of a young boy caught up in the pure love of science and life, despite the trials. The book is simply charming and shows what a resourceful child can do, even under often difficult times, to make his or her life interesting and even joyful.
I recommend this book highly. It will brighten up any reader's day.
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- Insightful and uplifting
- Nonfiction bogged down by fiction
- Lost Names
- Korean pride triumphs
- No blame, just poetry
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Lost Names: Scenes from a Korean Boyhood
Richard E. Kim
Manufacturer: University of California Press
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ASIN: 0520214242 |
Amazon.com
From 1932 to 1945, the Japanese occupied Korea. Organized in seven vivid scenes, Kim's fictionalized memoir tells the story of one family's experience, as told by the boy. The narrative starts in 1933 with a dramatic iced-river crossing into Manchuria, when the boy was just a year old, a story the boy knows from the many times his mother has told him the tale. Next scene and we're in 1938. The boy and his family have moved back to Korea, where the boy is the new boy in school and is learning new routines like bowing his head toward where the Japanese emperor is supposed to be in Tokyo. He does as he is told, but wonders if the emperor knows the children are bowing to him, wonders if he's asleep, or eating breakfast--or maybe even in the toilet. He pictures someone knocking on the door, saying, "Your Majesty! The children, the children! They are bowing to Your Majesty!" and him saying, "Wait a minute! I have my pants down!"
A few years later, the children are told they need new names--the Koreans must renounce their family names and take Japanese ones instead. Later, his father takes him to the cemetery to ask forgiveness from their ancestors for the humiliation of losing their names. The scenes continue as the boy grows up, mingling the experiences of childhood with the history of the occupation, seen in the small day-to-day moments that bring history alive. Richard Kim uses a simple but powerful voice to evoke painful times, a loving family, and a strong spirit of survival. Lost Names is a beautifully written tribute to the people of Korea that is subtle, moving, and hard to put down.
Book Description
In this classic tale, Richard Kim paints seven vivid scenes from a boyhood and early adolescence in Korea at the height of the Japanese occupation, 1932 to 1945. Taking its title from the grim fact that the occupiers forced the Koreans to renounce their own names and adopt Japanese names instead, the book follows one Korean family through the Japanese occupation to the surrender of the Japanese empire. Lost Names is at once a loving memory of family and a vivid portrayal of life in a time of anguish.
Customer Reviews:
Insightful and uplifting.......2007-10-10
While reading this book I got the impression that it was a memoir. It is actally not so please be aware of this when reading. Considering that it is fiction the author was surprisingly "tame" in telling the story. I was expecting another depressing memoir of a family destroyed by the Japanese occupation. In Kim's book, however, the family's suffering is more subtle and their eventual triump refreshing. It's nice to not read a book where everyone and their mothers die a painful death. This book gave a lot of insight into the lives of Koreans during the occupation. It was also nice to know that not all of the imperial Japanese soldiers were as gruesome as they were in the Rape of Nanjing.
Nonfiction bogged down by fiction.......2007-06-15
The "scenes from a Korean boyhood" in this book, which are evidently based on actual events, are very compelling and convey powerfully what life was like under the Japanese occupation of Korea. So that's the reason to read this book. Unfortunately, these scenes are set in a kind of fiction jello that connects one episode with another by means of impressionistic accounts of the Korean landscape and so on. This sort of writing is much less successful, and you'll find your eyes sliding past some of it. Kim is not as skillful at blending fiction and nonfiction as, say, Dave Eggers, and one wishes the author had related more about the father, who had been imprisoned by the Japanese, or the grandparents, or even the village, which was located in what is now North Korea. However, that would be a different book. Lost Names is not difficult reading and is certainly a good place to begin learning about what Koreans endured during World War II.
Lost Names.......2007-04-05
Imperialism is something that is often associated exclusively with the West. The histories of the British colonization of India and the Spanish colonies of Latin America abound, but many fail to notice the history of the Empire of Japan, which held Eastern Asia prior to and during the Second World War. Richard Kim writes about his childhood experience in Korea from 1932 to 1945 in his book Lost Names: Scenes from a Korean Boyhood and focuses on the situation of Japanese imperialism on the Korean peninsula, and the effects of the colonization.
Richard sees first hand how Japan influence on Korea is affecting his family life, school, and friendships. The book begins with an image of Kim's family leaving Korea for a job and being stopped by the Japanese Imperial Army. This was the first of the scenes that were told through the eyes of Richard Kim. The book goes on to depict six more stories, separated by chapters.
Japan is painted as an outside influence, which is taking over Korea in a more passive way. The narrator describes the Japanese as not bad people, but people who are distinct from the native Koreans, and collectively more powerful and all-surrendering when it comes to their Emperor. This is shown when the narrator talks about how the books gets it's name, in which the Koreans are made to give up their Korean names in exchange for a Japanese name. Showing the strong nature of his family the name chosen by his father means "Foundation of Rock."
Throughout the book, Koreans are portrayed as being in control in Korea behind the thick wall of Japanese occupation. This is largely personified in the character of Kim's college-educated father, whose firm anti-Japanese standpoints are looked-up-to by much of the local community. In spite of this, many Koreans are portrayed to be people who are indebted to the Japanese - shown by the character of Kim's teacher.
Aside from the educated people, Koreans are portrayed as being unaware of the events around the world at the time, shown by the narrator's mother's obliviousness to the unfolding of German invasions in Europe and Japanese occupations in China. These chapters's focus on day-to-day event, which make it very important to the overall understanding the reader, gets of the depth of the effects of the Japanese colonization.
Overall this book was very informative, one is able to see the true impact of the Japanese during World War II. However, not every event depicted in the story is completely true is still shows a first hand perspective in a new way, through a child eye. I would recommend the book to anyone interested in history or the impact of war. Just keep in mind this is not completely factual, but it will give you a better understanding of Korean history.
Korean pride triumphs.......2005-09-21
This was probably my favorite of the books we read in the Japanese History course I took my senior year of college. Young Richard Kim spent the majority of his childhood in his native Korea while it was under occupation by the Japanese, who were not very nice to or tolerant of his people, no matter they were the majority and the occupying Japanese were the minority. There are many hardships and much prejudice he faces growing up, from neighbors, the government, teachers, and schoolmates, but he never loses his sense of pride and Korean nationalism, constantly being reminded by his parents (who are ministers) and his grandmother to remain aware of where he comes from, his identity, the sustained hope that the Japanese won't always be in Korea, and to do well in school and set a fine example to the Japanese, since he mustn't let those Japanese boys at school think they're better than he is. When WWII comes along, everyone suffers the normal wartime deprivations, such as food shortages and bombing raids, but it is especially hard for the Koreans in the midst. Young Richard is forced, along with his classmates, to bow in the direction of the Emperor each morning, recite an ode of allegiance to the Emperor and Japanese government, and, worst of all, to even change his family name. All Koreans are forced to change their surnames to Japanese surnames, although Richard's father is clever and changes their family's name to one with the root meaning "rock," which of course is a reference to Saint Peter and the family's religious faith, a reference the Japanese won't get. It's enough to take away and try to usurp one's culture, traditions, customs, language, and way of life, but when you take away someone's name, that is in a way the ultimate erasure of their identity. Even when forced to, at least on the surface, speak a foreign language, submit to foreign leaders, and follow alien customs, there's still the comfort of knowing your base identity, your name, is still the same, but taking it away makes this prejudice and attempted usurpation of Korean culture incredibly personal and insulting.
It didn't really bother me that some of these memories and thoughts are very complex and detailed for a child as young as Richard is in the beginning. Many times memories of traumatic defining events are stronger and more vivid and real precisely because they were so awful and traumatic, leaving more impact than something as mundane as, say, eating breakfast or walking the dog. And even if some gaps in Richard's memory may have been filled in by what he imagines happened or what his family have told him happened, it doesn't lessen the emotional impact of these events in the slightest. And I like how it was told in the present tense; since discovering quite some time ago that books can be written in the present tense and there's no rule written in stone saying you must only and always write in the past tense, I've much preferred books written in the present tense. It makes the events seem more real and gripping, full of suspense and tension, like constantly wondering what's going to happen next, living right in the moment.
No blame, just poetry.......2005-08-28
A beautifully written book that places you in Korea during the second world war. Fast reading, and well paced told from the POV of a very (maybe too!) wise young boy. Only thing that got me down was knowing that it ended just before the next war again wreaked such damage and havoc, and there was no post script. Definitely worth reading.
Customer Reviews:
Boyhood and Beyond.......2007-09-09
This is a GREAT resource for teenage boys. It shows the positive side to maturing and stresses the reward of it not only in the physical relm but the spiritual relm. We read it as a devotional and each one has a real life attention grabbing situation that appeals to boys and examples of how to (and sometimes how NOT to) handle the situation. It's a very appealing dose of wisdom that our boys ENJOY!
Becoming a Man, as God Intends.......2007-04-26
Author Bob Schultz, coming from the background of an outdoor man of the Pacific Northwest, who works with his hands, both for a living and as part of his own service toward God, has managed to craft in BOYHOOD AND BEYOND, a highly useful and relevant work to guide boys into becoming men as God intends, one who protects and provides for his family, yet has enough humility to stoop to help a weaker one in need of a helping hand.
I have been using this book for almost a year now with my eleven-year-old homeschooled grandson, who loves these lessons and the time we spend together discussing them. He has recently begun covering the chapters on his own, with me close by as a sounding board for scriptural truths he wishes to discuss further.
My grandson was particularly looking forward to the chapter, "Preparing for a Wife," but was a little surprised and disappointed at the author's idea of how to do that. On the first page of that chapter, Schultz says, "God designed perfect classrooms for marriage training. They are called little sisters. Hopefully, you have one or more of these little girls around your home." My grandson has two, but even though I have been telling him essentially the same thing as Schultz, it seemed to sink in better for him, coming from Schultz.
The book is organized in thirty-one chapters, so used as a daily devotional, can be covered in about a month. The author has put forth topics relevant for Christian boys, and I have not detected any denominational bias in his writing, yet it is in no manner without backbone. He simply sticks with the essentials.
Schultz does not equivocate on important matters. One of the latter chapters is, "A Time to Kill," which he opens with these words, "One challenge of growing into a man is learning when it is time to kill and when it is not. Sometimes people get mixed up and kill when they shouldn't and refuse to kill when they should. How can a boy know when it is right?" He closes that chapter with, "We live in a day when people will kill their own babies yet won't kill a diseased mouse in their pantry. We are in need of men who have eyes to see the value of animals. We need men who have the courage to kill when it is time to kill."
Parents concerned about how the insidious subtlety of ungody agendas may be creeping in and and negatively influencing their sons will appreciate such uncompromising words as the foregoing. In writing this book, the author has self-apparently drawn wisdom from God Himself, through His written word, and not from the world, the flesh and the devil, all of which are at enmity with God.
We own another book by the author, CREATED FOR WORK, and I plan to start using that one soon with all three of my homeschooled grandchildren, currently 11, 8 and 6, having high hopes that chore time will go more smoothly thereafter! I plan to let you know through another review of that book!
Highly recommended.......2007-04-11
I would highly recommend this book for parents and young boys (ages from 8yrs). Very good source to help grow a boy with Godly purpose in his life. Good discussion questions after each chapter to go deeper.
Easy to read for this age. Has very practical and enjoyable stories.
Parents of Sons should read!.......2007-03-28
This book is well-written and very practical. Schultz doesn't just philosophize, he has you roll up your sleeves! Single mothers can use this, too. It's written more for father and son though (fathers need to be more involved with their sons) and reading a chapter a day together will not only give instruction, but will bring parent and son closer.
Follow up with his book, "Created for Work".
very practical.......2007-01-12
My husband and 14 yr old son are reading this book together and are enjoying their discussions. Recommend highly
Book Description
In a lifetime of exploration, writing, and passionate political activism, John Muir made himself America's most eloquent spokesman for the mystery and majesty of the wilderness, a master of natural description who evoked and celebrated with unique power and intimacy the untrammeled landscapes of Alaska and the American West.
Customer Reviews:
A Look At the Life of an Amazing Man.......2007-05-07
This Autobiography of John Muir was a look at the life of an amazing man. He was the type of writer that could take you to the place where he was living and make you feel like you were right there with him. His childhood experiences in Scotland and the farm life of Wisconsin formed the basis for how he viewed and related to the rest of his life and those around him. He was a world traveler who looked through the eyes of creation to observe ecology and invention. As a world traveler I also observe through the eyes of creation and as a native Californian I have had extensive experience hiking and camping in the Sierra Nevada's. John Muir's writing style took me back to the places I have loved and remembered.
The Finest Natural History.......2007-01-04
John Muir was one of the founders of the early 20th century conservation movement and godfather to today's environmentalism. This collection of three books and shorter works demonstrates the reason. Muir's description of the natural world is at times scientific, at others spiritual. Here nature is not some remote thing but the living manifestation of God's love. This is not a religious book as such and yet he finds that all parts of the natural creation from rocks and mountains to trees and animals have inherent within them a life force which makes them precious. Humans are neither removed from nor a "higher" part of nature. Muir shows that we are part of this larger whole - a radical concept when he proposed it and radical still. Muir set the standard in calling for preservation of the natural world. He was a genius as an inventor and scientist and, in addition, is one of our finest writers ever. These collected Nature Writings are simply beautiful and wonderfully presented in this Library of America edition.
John Muir: Outdoorsman, Conservationist, and Literate Genius.......2003-09-15
"American forests! the glory of the world!"
- John Muir, 1901
Of all the extraordinary men and women that have made our nation great, one stands above all others for his dedication to preserving its unequaled natural beauty: John Muir. Founder of The Sierra Club, this lover of the western forests' legacy to our generation is the National Park system, through which millions of acres of unique ecosystems have been set aside for everyone's enjoyment.
"Muir: Nature Writings" is a collection of the writings of this Scottish expatriate who first stepped foot in America in 1849 as an eleven year old brawler and budding naturalist. Blessed with a childhood mastery of Latin and Greek as well as a discerning and disciplined eye, the learned boy possessed a poet's heart, a scientist's mind, and a theologian's soul. A genius, who as a teen whittled precision wooden scientific instruments, Muir used his diverse skills to vividly portray nature's life and death struggles on his family's Wisconsin farm in "My Boyhood & Youth." Here we find Muir learning to swim by observing frogs or recollecting the mindless slaughter of the Earth's most numerous bird, the now-extinct passenger pigeon, a forlorn tale that foreshadows the conservationist he was to become.
While in college polishing his mechanical skills, Muir was detoured into studying botany. Dropping out to make powered tools for factories, an accident left him rethinking that detour; he forsook the factory and walked across America. His journey led him to the Sierra Mountains, chronicled in "My First Summer in the Sierra." Now working as a shepherd, Muir drove his flock through Yosemite while making detailed nature studies. Marveling at the natural beauty of the land he would eventually champion as one of the first National Parks, Muir wrote: "We are now in the mountains and they are in us, kindling enthusiasm, making every nerve quiver, filling every pore and cell of us. Our flesh-and-bone tabernacle seems transparent as glass to the beauty about us, as if truly an inseparable part of it, thrilling with the air and trees, streams and rocks, in the waves of the sun, - a part of all nature, neither old nor young, sick nor well, but immortal."
Muir's writings here run the gamut from analytical to thrilling. In "Stickeen", the author and a canine companion cheat death while stranded mid-storm between crevasses of an Alaskan glacier. (A self-taught authority on glaciers, Muir would eventually have one in Alaska bear his name.) "The Mountains of California" is an in-depth look at the geologic formations, plants, and animals of the region. In this piece, he tells of being stuck on the side of volcanic Mt. Shasta, staying warm in the bitter cold by nestling up to steam vents. Muir also laments the loss of the vast meadows of the San Joaquin Valley as he discusses how to make a living post-Gold Rush by raising bees for honey.
What makes Muir so unique when compared with today's environmentalists is this belief that we can live in harmony with Creation if we take simple steps to prevent despoiling it. In "The American Forests" he wrote: "No place is too good for good men, and there is still room.... Every place is made better by them. Let them be as free to pick gold and gems from the hills, to cut and hew, dig and plant, for homes and bread...." Muir's balanced view of Man's place in the wilderness overwhelmingly reflects his Christian faith, for he never fails to stand in awe of each living thing God has made. That our government leaders were so swayed by Muir's writing attests to the power of his "holy" persuasion. All of us are indebted to John Muir's single-minded devotion to America's wilderness.
("Muir: Nature Writings" is part of the Library of America series. This diverse collection of the writings of great Americans ranges from sermons of early American preachers to analysis of the Vietnam War. The works of Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, Ulysses S. Grant, Flannery O'Connor, and James Thurber are but a few that comprise the series. An invaluable lookingglass into the heart and soul of our nation, this collection is essential reading for anyone who longs to know what makes America unique.)
inspirational in every way.......1999-10-11
A great writer writing about great things - you'll feel like you're in the middle of the Sierra yourself. Endlessly enjoyable.
Lovers of Muir, find your home in this volume!.......1999-08-29
In a world brimming with wonderful volumes of the work of John Muir, here is the one edition in which you may find virtually everything you seek. To find it in such a handsome, handy, easy to negotiate book makes this a must for all lovers of Muir's writing. Eight inches tall by six wide and two inches thick, it is a durable and willing partner for excursions through the wilderness. Created for long life among library shelves and scholarly studies, this sleek little friend stows away quite comfortably in backpack or oversized coat pocket. Those who don't know Mr. Muir will meet the great lover of wildness (and perhaps history's most influential advocate of preservation) presented in a lovingly researched volume which includes informative notes on the evolution of Muir's field journal entries into published pieces, a chronology of his life and literary career, and all of the major writings for which he is known. A generous selection of his published essays and magazine articles reveal many previously unsuspected jewels of poetic prose. As a lifetime devotee of the works of Shakespeare, the Bible, and the immortal Scottish bard Robert Burns, Muir could recite extensive passages from all. Likewise, his writing breezes through the imagery and lessons drawn from these potent sources. Coffee table books brimming with Ansel Adams photography, biographies of Muir, and collections of his correspondence are all aspects of any comprehensive Muir collection. The words themselves, however, simple and elegantly bound, are where the journey might well begin.
Book Description
"With compassion and clarity, Richard Gartner shares insights from years of working with male survivors. Among this book's greatest strengths is the extensive use of examples from Dr. Gartner's clinical practice to illustrate problems and solutions on the path to healing. Beyond Betrayal offers support, encouragement, and useful skills to men in recovery."
—Mike Lew, M.Ed., author of Victims No Longer and Leaping upon the Mountains
"If you have been sexually abused, this book will give you information, hope, direction, and most importantly, the assurance that you are not alone. Dr. Gartner has written an accessible, compassionate book that clearly lays out the healing process for men who were hurt or abused as children. Whether you were abused by a mother, a camp counselor, a neighborhood boy, or a priest, Beyond Betrayal will give you the tools you need to reclaim your life and move on. If you're going to take one book with you on the healing journey, this should be the one."
—Laura Davis, coauthor of The Courage to Heal and author of The Courage to Heal Workbook
"Compassionate, insightful, and hopeful, Beyond Betrayal shines a bright light. It is a must-read for anyone concerned."
—Kenneth M. Adams, Ph.D., author of Silently Seduced
"Beyond Betrayal cuts through the shame, confusion, misunderstanding, and fear that so often accompany the abuse of males and replaces them with clear information. I will begin to use it immediately with my patients and think that other clinicians will do so as well."
—Christine A. Courtois, Ph.D., author of Healing the Incest Wound and Recollections of Sexual Abuse
"Beyond Betrayal offers men straightforward words of hope and a meaningful way to overcome the invisibility, stigma, and shame they have endured. Many men and their families will find this book a healing aid."
—Jack Drescher, M.D., author of Psychoanalytic Therapy and the Gay Man
"Dr. Gartner writes in a manner any reader will find accessible. Not only does he understand the topic of males, sexual abuse, and recovery, but he can explain it to those who need to know."
—Dr. Mic Hunter, author of Abused Boys and editor of Adult Survivors of Sexual Abuse: Treatment Innovations
Download Description
With compassion and clarity, Richard Gartner shares insights from years of working with male survivors. Among this book's greatest strengths is the extensive use of examples from Dr. Gartner's clinical practice to illustrate problems and solutions on the path to healing. Beyond Betrayal offers support, encouragement, and useful skills to men in recovery."Mike Lew, M.Ed., author of Victims No Longer and Leaping upon the Mountains "If you have been sexually abused, this book will give you information, hope, direction, and most importantly, the assurance that you are not alone. Dr. Gartner has written an accessible, compassionate book that clearly lays out the healing process for men who were hurt or abused as children. Whether you were abused by a mother, a camp counselor, a neighborhood boy, or a priest, Beyond Betrayal will give you the tools you need to reclaim your life and move on. If you're going to take one book with you on the healing journey, this should be the one."
Customer Reviews:
Life changing assistance.......2007-07-03
Gartner has written a must-read book for those of us in recovery. I've read several books on the subject, and "Beyond Betrayal" almost seems to be written directly about MY life. I learned so much about myself by reading and journaling along with this wonderfully helpful book. It has been extremely helpful to my wife as well...she understands so much about me now. Thanks Dr. Gartner!
An instant classic -- thank you for this wonderful book!.......2007-04-21
We just don't have to feel so alone any more. Dr. Gartner's amazing earlier book, Betrayed as Boys, was written for professionals but he used language that many laymen (including me) can find moving and useful. In Beyond Betrayal, he writes directly to men like us as well as to our partners, spouses, and loved ones. Beyond Betrayal speaks so directly to my own experience as a man trying to heal from boyhood abuse that I almost felt he knew me and wrote it specifically for me. There is a stunning description of early betrayal and how it leads to severe problems with trust in relationships later on. He then leads you through how society cheats you by making you believe that men can't be victims. The result of this is that we often believe that our abuse was our own fault -- leading to shame, silence, and guilt. This section was especially startling and remarkable. He covers all the bases, including abuse by priests and other clergy, abuse by women that we are told is "sexual initiation," and so many other facets of boyhood sexual abuse!
But he dioesn't stop there. Dr Gartner also tells us how to find our way. I not only felt understood, but also felt I got specific tools to move me along a path of healing. The section on how to find a therapist (even if you live in an isolated area not likely to have specialists in boyhood abuse) will be a godsend to many men. So is his section on things we can do for ourselves in addition to therapy. And our partners and loved ones -- who are often really left out in the cold in books like this -- will also find relief, comfort, and specific ways to help themselves, us, and our relationships as we journey together.
Thank you, Dr. Gartner!
Life Changing.......2006-12-09
This book was the first one I read when I finally chose to accept my abuse. It is sensitive, compassionate, and full of positivity. Some of the stories from other surviviors will force you to recall similarities in your life, but in the end, it will help you to appreciate that you're not alone and you will become a Survivor of Childhood Sexual Abuse and no longer a Victim. Mr. Gartner will give you the tools that you need to move forward and live a life that you always knew you could live. It will not happen over night or over a month or even a year, but it will happen!!
What do YOU do now?.......2006-10-27
In the early months of therapy my therapist suggested this book. She had listened to me when I said that the other books seemed to be about victims, but not 'of' victims; she said this book was geared more from the victims' perspective. Reading it was one of the defining moments in my healing; this was a turning point. I read about people just like me; I read about how they felt and how they expressed it to Dr Gartner; I read about them not wanting to say the truth because they feared reprisal or ridicule; I read about things I thought only I felt, suffered, endured and held inside. I read reality and it hit home, it hit home hard and true and I let go of something. I let go of the illusion that I was the only one in the whole world that felt like that. I let go - so simple yet so profound, and in letting go I opened a small window to let my therapist see into my world. If you doubt anyone ever enduring the same as you, read this book. Skim it if you will; jump about through the paragraphs; read one page a day if it hurts but, please, read it. Read the real people. Know, in you heart, that you are truly not alone. You have to do that for 'you' now.
Great Book.......2006-03-14
It is the best book I read on boyhood sexual abuse. It is a life saver!!! It is very constructive in rebuilding one's life after the abuse. A must read...
Amazon.com
Born on October 1, 1924, Jimmy Carter grew up on a Georgia farm during the Great Depression. In An Hour Before Daylight, the former president tells the story of his rural boyhood, and paints a sensitive portrait of America before the civil rights movement.
Carter describes--in glorious, if sometimes gory, detail--growing up on a farm where everything was done by either hand or mule: plowing fields, "mopping" cotton to kill pests, cutting sugar cane, shaking peanuts, or processing pork. He also describes the joys of walking barefoot ("this habit alone helped to create a sense of intimacy with the earth"), taking naps with his father on the porch after lunch, and hunting with slingshots and boomerangs with his playmates--all of whom were black. Carter was in constant contact with his black neighbors; he worked alongside them, ate in their homes, and often spent the night in the home of Rachel and Jack Clark, "on a pallet on the floor stuffed with corn shucks," when his parents were away. However, this intimacy was possible only on the farm. When young Jimmy and his best friend, A.D. Davis, went to town to see a movie, they waited for the train together, paid their 15 cents, and then separated into "white" and "colored" compartments. Once in Americus, they walked to the theater together, but separated again, with Jimmy buying a seat on the main floor or first balcony at the front door, and A.D. going around to the back door to buy his seat up in the upper balcony. After the movie, they returned home on another segregated train. "I don't remember ever questioning the mandatory racial separation, which we accepted like breathing or waking up in Archery every morning."
In this warm, almost sepia-toned narrative, Carter describes his relationships with his parents and with the five people--only two of whom were white--who most affected his early life. Best of all, however, Carter presents his sweetly nostalgic recollections of a lost America. --Sunny Delaney
Book Description
In An Hour Before Daylight, Jimmy Carter, bestselling author of Living Faith and Sources of Strength, re-creates his Depression-era boyhood on a Georgia farm before the civil rights movement forever changed it and the country. Carter writes about the powerful rhythms of countryside and community in a sharecropping economy, offering an unforgettable portrait of his father, a brilliant farmer and a strict segregationist who treated black workers with respect and fairness; his strong-willed and well-read mother; and the five other people who shaped his early life, three of whom were black.
Carter's clean and eloquent prose evokes a time when the cycles of life were predictable and simple and the rules were heartbreaking and complex. In his singular voice and with a novelist's gift for detail, Jimmy Carter creates a sensitive portrait of an era that shaped the nation and recounts a classic, American story of enduring importance.
Download Description
Filled with the loving memories of his parents, childhood friends, and neighbors, An Hour Before Daylight is Jimmy Carter's beautiful and touching recollection of his Depression-era youth outside of the small town of Plains, Georgia -- a sweeping look at the South as it existed before the Civil Rights Movement changed the country forever. Blessed with a novelist's gift for detail, Carter describes the pressure of farming in very hard times, and most importantly, how a society of god-fearing men and women, who acted with individual kindness, could have been blind to the sin of discrimination until they were awakened by their fellow man. An Hour Before Daylight is ultimately a biography of the American South, written with stunning honesty by one of its most talented sons.
Customer Reviews:
wonderful memoir of a country boy who became President.......2007-06-29
After reading this book it is easy to understand why Jimmy Carter was denigrated as a weak Leader who let America's enemies walk all over him. As he looks back with affection & describes his childhood in a strict, hardworking, but loving family on a farm in back country Depression-Era Georgia, Mr Carter comes across as a genuinely kind and good man who respects his fellow-men & women - regardless of color or creed; who is tolerant of - though not entirely blind to -- the shortcomings & foibles of others, and truly incapable of seeing evil in anyone. In short, he is the Ideal Christian. This also goes a long way to explain why subsequently he became so widely respected on the International stage in his second career as Humanitarian & Fixer of the World's Problems.
Mr Carter paints a colourful word-picture of his boyhood home, the close-knit community, the Carter farm, the livestock, the hunting dogs, his family, and his neighbours, the black tenant farmers and their children with whom he worked and played. There is nostalgia for a time and way of life that largely disappeared from this continent half a century ago, when children worked harder & shouldered more responsibility than today's young people can even imagine, but which was the making of them as responsible adults. Yet his writing style is innocent & light-hearted, and occasionally down-right laughable as, for example, when he gives us some examples of his rural childhood diction. It is hard to imagine the urbane, educated Mr Carter uttering the words "We et a bait of plums" or, having travelled 30 miles to see the flooding Flint River, "Wheh de ribber, Daddy? Is it down in dat creek?"
This book touched me on a more personal level as well. I was not far into it before I realised it reminded me so much of the spell-binding stories my mother used to tell us children around the dinner table, stories of her life growing up on a 240 acre Clay Belt farm as one of 15 children of Ukrainian immigrants. The climate, the geography and the neighbours' ethnicity may have been worlds away from the Carters, but her life and her experiences could just as well have happened down the dusty road from Plains, Georgia.
Attention Jimmy Carter: If you read this - I asked my mother about the sound made by the metal clicker on the handle of the milk separator. She is an expert: one of her chores was to operate the milk separator; and afterward to disassemble, clean & reassemble all its the component parts, which she could perform as rapidly as a soldier does with his rifle.
Mother says you have to turn the handle faster & faster until it reaches the speed necessary for the cream to separate from the milk inside the machine. The change in the tone of the "clicker" is determined by the speed of the turning handle & occurs when the required speed has been reached for the separation to occur.
Mr Carter is one of only a handful of public figures with whom I would care to be acquainted. Such an interesting Life; such an interesting man!
I like Cater, but can't cotton his writing.......2007-06-08
Why is it that ex-presidents make poor writers? Is it that they have had to hide their feeing so long they are afraid to loosen up afterward because we might think less of them? I was looking forward to reading about a boy growing up in Georgia while I was growing up in Iowa, but his writing is so stiff and lifeless that I quit halfway through.
Ho Hum.......2007-01-09
Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy. You need an editor who is not afraid to tell you that your books are boring. I am giving your book, AN HOUR BEFORE DAYLIGHT, 2 stars because it is written in English and all the pages are numbered correctly. I checked.
Excellent!!!.......2006-10-01
This is one of the best books I've read the past year and one of the best biographies I've ever read. Jimmy Cater, whether you like/respect the man or not, is an excellent storyteller and he takes you back to the years of growing up on a rural Georgia farm during the Great Depression and segregation. The descriptions are so clear it seems like you're actually there. Quite a contrast to the middle class/suburban upbringing I experienced. I also read Carter's Presidential biography, which is also very good, but he's not as long-winded here so the book reads very fast.
Also some interesting photos. Overall excellent.
Worth the time.......2006-04-07
President Carter discusses his experiences growing up in rural Georgia during the depression and how it influenced his future public life. Despite the institutionalized segregation that formally kept the races apart, many of the people that shaped the future President's young life were not white. It is amazing to compare the changes in American society from 70 years ago, some for the better (institutionalized segregation and racism), but mostly for the worse. Even though segregation is now gone, it is ironic that the informal happy-go-lucky youthful mixing of the races that President Carter claims helped shape his young life is probably gone now as well; but cynically, I believe Carter over emphasizes this point for political profit. Also, Americans were very frugal, resourceful, and resilient in those days. I don't think today's wasteful, whiney, latte entitlement generation could go through such economic hardship.
I was disappointed that Carter didn't talk much about aspirations of political life. Mainly, his youthful ambition was concerned with getting into the Naval Academy, and the book ends there.
Book Description
Illus. in black-and-white. Opening note by Coretta Scott King. For the first time, the most important account ever written of a childhood in slavery is accessible to young readers. From his days as a young boy on a plantation to his first months as a freeman in Massachusetts, here are Douglass's own firsthand experiences vividly recounted--expertly excerpted and powerfully illustrated.
Customer Reviews:
A microcosm of the contradictions of slavery.......2001-06-20
With so much of the sordid history of slavery in the United States behind us, many of the major wounds have been healed. However, that does not mean that we should forget what it did to people. Slavery turned otherwise kindly people into beasts. Eventually, it was the wedge that drove two segments of the U.S. into overt warfare.
Frederick Douglass was one of the most articulate voices opposed to slavery among free blacks. A natural writer, he describes his life in slavery and how dehumanizing it was. The time he spent in slavery was a microcosm of most of the contradictions of slavery. Taken from his mother at a young age, he knew nothing about his white father. A slave was property to their owner, somewhat on a par with a horse or cattle. And yet, many slaveholders fathered children with their female slaves. Many slaves were severely beaten or killed for disobedience. Chivalrous gentleman who would not tolerate a man beating a horse would speak approval of similar actions being performed on a defenseless slave. Douglass was beaten many times, even to the point of possible permanent injury, for actions that were simply human. Finally, there was the bizarre spectacle of slaves and free blacks living in the same areas, sometimes even being relatives by blood or marriage. The woman who eventually became his wife was a free woman while he was a slave, joining him after he escaped to freedom.
It does us all good to be reminded how destructive slavery was to the structure of American society. Douglass lived on both sides of the issue and his story of the slave years are a powerful tale of human destruction. Written for older children, this book should be required reading for graduation from high school.
Book Description
At the age of three, in 1964, Tim Bascom is thrust into a world of eucalyptus trees and stampeding baboons when his family moves from the Midwest to Ethiopia. Unflinchingly observant, young Tim reveals his missionary parents' struggles in a sometimes hostile country. Sent reluctantly to boarding school in the capital, Bascom finds that beyond the gates enclosing that peculiar, isolated world, conflict roils Ethiopian society; as he grows older, the secret riot drills at school create in him a mounting unease. While visiting his parents' home, where another missionary family has fled after an attack by rampaging students, Tim witnesses the disintegration of his family's African idyll as Hailie Selassie's empire begins to crumble. Like Alexandra Fuller's Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, Chameleon Days chronicles social upheaval through the keen yet naive eyes of a child. Bascom offers readers a fascinating glimpse of missionary life, much as Barbara Kingsolver did in The Poisonwood Bible.
Customer Reviews:
Ethiopian history.......2007-06-08
I have not read this yet, but have heard about it. We are glad to find any product that can help us understand our children's Ethiopian history and share with them as they get older.
Sacrifice.......2007-02-16
These are the memories of the middle child of a couple who served as missionaries in Ethopia in the 1960's. Tim was 3 years old when he first arrived. The book covers his parents' tours of 5 years, making him 8 years old at the book's end.
It's hard to imagine such an observant 3 year old, but, this is a child living in a highly insecure environment. A perfect metaphor occurs at the start when Tim and his older brother arrive on Ethopian soil and run. Miraculously they stop at the edge of a cliff. They look down and shake from the vision of the drop off. Another missionary sees some baboons and thinks its great fun to scatter them, adding further terror to the boys still standing on the brink.
Just like that missionary who scattered the baboons, other than Mom, who from time to time says "He's too young", the adults seem to be oblivious to the obvious endangerment of the children.
Every time this family got in the Land Rover I choked. Similarly ominous were the times Tim left the campus of his boarding school... a school where the children are shown a secret basement "just in case".
The book gives a good portrait of missionary life and the state of life in these remote outposts at that time. While the author's point is to descibe his life (not elicit sympathy for missiary children), I could not get past the terror these children were exposed to. I would hope that people who contemplate this sort of work, and people who assign them will consider this book. The policy of sending people with such young dependents needs to be reconsidered.
A different impression.......2007-01-15
Contrary to what other reviewers read in this book, I found it to be less an account of missionary experience (adequately written or not) than an account of being a very small child who was placed in a constant state of insecurity and anxiety by his parents. This was their choice of life, but they subjected their very young children to the consequences of their adult choices. That they placed their children in such constant disruption and uncertainty seems to me to be irresponsible. It seemed to me that they were very neglectful, selfish and even emotionally abusive. Does having a "calling" or a cause give permission to treat one's children the way that these parents did? The focus of this book was on this little boy's impressions of family, of his own emotional state and a child's perspective of some experiences. As a narrow view of political events or of missionary life affected that child's life, they were included, but it is mainly a story of a neglected, lonely and frightened child kept in persistent anxiety about matters of safety, security and family relationships. I don't know how representative this kind of neglect of missionary children is of missionary life in Africa or anywhere else, or whether it was unique to these two parents, but I found myself annoyed with these parents through much of this reading. It was astonishing to remember that for much of the time written about, this little boy was 3-4-5 years old being sent away to boarding school far away from his parents.
Chameleon Days.......2006-11-26
I was transported through time as I read Tim Bascom's Chameleon Days, and I have been connected to one of my daughters in a new way as she read the book and had a glimpse into an aspect of my personal history that I have rarely shared. Tim Bascom's Bingham Academy experience occurred a few years after my own, but there was little difference. As he described each facet of life at Bingham, I relived my own experiences and shuddered again to think that there was any reason big enough to send small children away to boarding school. Thank you, Tim, for the opportunity to once again "see" the weaver birds' nests at Lake Bishoftu, and praise be to God for His loving care as we were away from our parents at such tender ages.
boyhood from one perspective.......2006-11-10
The account was very critical of so many aspects of his childhood that one wonders if his memories are quite accurate. Thankfully we've read many more positive accounts of childhood missionary experiences. Not a helpful read at all.
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